Underground power line construction on track for end-of-year completion

Longboat Key’s underground cable project continues to move on schedule with the town’s portion of the project expected to be completed by the end of the year. 

The town’s Public Works Department sent its most recent update to the Town Commission on July 22. 

“We’re approaching this early fall time frame where the bulk of the physical construction will be done,” Public Works Director Isaac Brownman said. “Then it will be in a time period where we are working with (Florida Power & Light) to finalize everything to a point where we can turn on the newly installed electrical system underground.”

The project, which launched in summer 2019 on the south end of island, was broken into four phases, with phase one taking place on the southern portion of the island, phase two on the northern end, and phases three and four in the middle.

Originally envisioned with five phases and expected to be completed in 2024, the $49.1 million project is now expected to be done a year early. The work has consistently been completed without the need for contingency funds built into the taxes assessed annually on town homes and businesses.

All major boring of primary and feeder circuits are complete. In phase four, crews are completing final primary and secondary conduit splicing along Gulf of Mexico Drive and neighborhoods. As the schedule stands, all electrical conduit work for phase four is to be completed by the end of September. 

Crews are installing wire in phase three and four following conduit splicing. Phase three is projected to be finished by the end of August. Phase four is planned for completion in October. 

Pad and equipment setting is complete in phase two. Phase three is ongoing with the expectation of finishing by the end of August. Phase four will follow phase three with expected completion in October. 

FPL has been informed that the town is expecting to submit switch orders for customers by the end of August, preparing for work to be done by the utility to literally convert from aerial service to underground service. Once those switchovers are made, crews can begin removing poles and overhead wires, as has been done on the southern end of the island. 

“All the work that the town can do up to that point (switch orders) should be done by December and may be done earlier,” said James Linkogle, the project manager.

All services to be converted from aerial to underground have been bored in phases two and three. The majority of phase four is finished with remaining services expected to be complete by the end of September. 

All neighborhood street light poles will be installed by the end of August. All poles on Gulf of Mexico Drive will be installed by the end of August or early September. However, 15 poles have been delayed due to shipping issues. Once the remaining poles arrive, it will take another two weeks to install those. 

For the town fiber portion of the project, all boring and splice box installation is complete. The town is waiting on cost proposals for connectivity to critical town buildings. 

The town has completed its responsibilities of the Comcast and Frontier Communications portions of the project. Final steps, including splicing of orange conduits sticking up out of the ground along Gulf of Mexico Drive, are the responsibility of the two companies. 

In phases two and three of easements, the consent of the affected property owners has been obtained. The majority of transformer pads have been set. 

In phase four, four property owner consents are still needed. Transformer pad setting is in progress. Due to the timing of phase four, there is currently no anticipated impact to FPL switch orders.